Medicine
by FaustoCosgrove
Summary: Chunin exams. Naruto has just finished his prelim match with Kiba. Hinata has a crush on Naruto, and has just mustered up the courage to talk to him. "He-here ... for your wounds.", but when Hinata opened her eyes it wasn't Naruto she had just offered the ointment to. Gaahina.
1. Chapter 1

Hyuuga Hinata took a long time to work up the courage to act.

 _Kiba's match is over. Here comes Naruto. I'm so nervous I'm shaking a little. But I decided to give this to him! Here goes!_

"He-here... for your wounds." Hinata said with her eyes closed.

 _I hope he doesn't notice I'm shaking. He hasn't taken the container yet. Or said anything. Ugh, say something, Naruto!_

"Did'ya see that, Sakura!?" Hinata head Naruto's voice from far too far away. Opening her eyes in disappointment, she discovered someone else standing directly in front of her. Looking up, she discovered this person was none other than the dreaded Gaara of the Sand.

Hinata found herself frozen in fear, despite her brain yelling "run" over and over again at her feet. More than frozen, the whole world began moving in slow motion as she watched in horror at his hand moving toward her.

He took the small jar. His stone cold expression replaced by something Hinata couldn't quite identify. Pain? Sadness? She didn't dwell on it long. He strained to keep his monotone steady, "Thank you."

Hinata nodded, and scooted away. She hid behind her Sensei, absolutely mortified. A moment too late, and it made all that courage meaningless.


	2. Chapter 2

Gaara watched the match conclude less than interested. The two unnecessarily loud Konoha genin had been embroiled in a fight more about calling each other losers and playing with a dog than fighting. Either of them would've been too easy. He wasn't supposed to kill anyone just yet, but if they're that weak, surely an accident wouldn't be much of a stretch of the imagination. But even to imagine such a thing, neither of them would provide any kind of satisfaction.

"He-here..." Gaara's thoughts were interrupted by an equally disinteresting Konoha genin. ... for your wounds."

A girl with short hair was squeezing her eyes shut and holding out a small jar. A medicinal smell wafted from the jar and reminded him of one fateful night six years ago, happily running thought the streets of Suna, only to have a door slammed in his face.

Gaara remembered that day very vividly now. He had thought he'd learned about pain and love from his Uncle, the only person who'd ever been kind to him. But then everything had started falling apart. And it had started falling apart when that kid called him a monster, slammed the door, rejecting not just the medicine but Gaara's whole existence. He watched her expression change from anxious to sad as she opened her eyes. He was reliving his feelings as he plodded away from that kid's door, the same feelings she was on the verge of experiencing.

 _I am capable of killing a person._ Gaara thought as he reached for the small jar. _But I am not capable of inflicting that kind of pain on another person._

"Thank you."

She vanished, leaving Gaara lost in contemplation.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: holy crack-pairing fandom from beyond the grave, batman. I can't believe the views this has got!

Hinata's POV

Hinata was mentally kicking herself. And still hiding behind Kurenai.

 _I was a moment too late. I almost got to give it to Naruto-kun. But maybe he wouldn't have stopped even if he had heard me. He was too busy showing off to Sakura-chan. And then that scary boy from Suna was standing there! I'm glad he didn't get mad. But he did take the medicine. I wonder if something hurt him in the forest? After seeing what he did to those Mist nin, whatever it was must have been something really bad. Maybe he thinks I was following him. Oh great._

Neji's POV

"The next match is Hyuuga Neji versus Hyuuga Hinata!"

 _Fraternizing with foreign ninja? So detached of reality and responsibility, international problems could come of this you know! You are an inept ninja, and even more so inept with political matters. How could a thing like you have the fate of inheriting the Hyuuga Clan?_

An irritated Hayate called up to the stands, louder this time "Would the Hyuuga children please grace the arena with their presence?"

Scattered giggles came from the crowd and snapped Neji back to reality. A glance revealed Hiashi hiding his face as he griped his temples and pretended to not notice his eldest daughter and nephew embarrass the entire clan. Hanabi's gaze of mild disgust shifted from Hinata to him.

The next instant, Neji was in the arena. Hinata was coaxed out from behind Kurenai, and Neji proceeded to beat Hinata half to death.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I had a lot of trouble with this chapter. So much so that I skipped it half way through and completed the next two chapters before I finished this one. So today is upload-a-palooza.

Meanwhile, Gaara's POV

Gaara starred at the small jar in his hand. It was just salve for cuts and scrapes. He would never use the contents. The sand prevented him from being hurt. But Gaara was noticing a squeezing in his chest distinctly unlike what he described to his Uncle all those years ago.

Gaara knew you could identify wounds by blood, bruises, a limp step... but what about wounds of the heart? Is that something someone could see? Gaara turned the jar on all sides, secretly hoping so see the word "Love" etched somewhere on the container.

Gaara's inspection repeated until the obnoxious cry of "Hinata!" over and over again laid claim to his attention.

 _That's right. I don't know her name._

Gaara remembered the Konoha headband around her neck, and inspected the stands for Konoha ninja. He found a group of them, pretty much everyone who survived the forest, but no matter how much he looked she wasn't there. He glanced down into the arena, and there she was, exchanging blows with her opponent.

 _So her name was Hinata._ For a split second, Gaara felt like he was floating.

She collapsed. The tight feeling in his chest turned into a strange sensation that dropped like a rock from his chest to his gut. He opened his mouth to scream 'Hinata!' like he'd been hearing before, but no sound came out. Gaara watched the whole world slide to the left in slow motion. He got a grip on the railing and steadied himself.

She trembled as she stood. Still alive! Her opponent dove in for another attack, and Gaara found his feet which had wobbled just a moment ago glued to the floor. The opponent was swarmed with adults, and she collapsed again. More Konoha ninja hopped down into the area. Gaara tried to as well, but he couldn't move. A medical team tok her away, and Gaara realized that he had been gripping the railing so hard his knuckles had turned white.

 _So that's why I wasn't able to go down there._

"-on't forget about the plan."

He looked over. His brother currently had his sister's fist crammed half way in his mouth to shut him up.

"I-it's your match, Gaara."

Gaara stared at his siblings. Temari had just said something, but he had already forgotten what it was.

Someone said "go down into the arena", or maybe Gaara was hallucinating what he wanted to hear. His feet on auto pilot, the fight of the century was currently going on in his head. Part of him plus Shukaku was screaming to kill the ninja who had done that to her, but part of him was a mess between wanting to know if she was okay and dreading to find out if she wasn't. Mainly, he was just dumbstruck by the whole experience.

"Begin!" the proctor shouted. Gaara noticed he wasn't in the stands.

 _When did I get here?_

His opponent tried to attack him, but Gaara's sand was already on it. Gaara glanced to the arena's floor. A puddle of Hinata's blood was smudged with a handprint a short ways off. Gaara's match may have just begun, but the war waging in his mind came to a frightening calm.

 _Kill._

A loud crashing sound drew Gaara's search of who or what to kill toward the sound of the crash. Two dusty craters were left behind by his opponent. Lee's foot had come dangerously close to Gaara's face before Gaara had time to blink. A moment later, Gaara felt his head knocked forward and a line of pressure on his face. A gash in his sand armor was several millimeters thick.

 _Kill._

Gaara was delighted at the thought. Though as he reformed his sand armor, he realized he didn't know who. He should have wanted to kill the genin who had made Hinata bleed, but couldn't even remember that person's face. He should want to kill the opponent in front of him, but there is no satisfaction in killing a fly.

But as the match drew on, the fly got more and more annoying. Soon, the fly was a legitimate threat. As his sand armor was being torn off, the thought that this boy might be a monster just like him was overpowering the drum beat of 'kill'. After accepting that he couldn't match the monster candidate in speed nor make up for it be placing sand all over the area to grab him when he moved over it, Gaara decided to get caught and attack after his opponent had hold of him. Which didn't work, but after the strange color faded from his skin, Gaara reached out with his sand and grabbed his arm and leg. His opponent screamed and went limp.

 _Playing possum? That's my trick. This'll wake you up..._

Gaara sent a plume of sand toward his still limp opponent, but a strangely identical looking adult ninja interfered.

 _What did you interfere for? He's a monster, just like me. A monster wouldn't die from that._ Out loud, Gaara asked, "Why did you save him?"

After he asked that question, Gaara's rudimentary knowledge of human heritability put two and two together. The similarity between the two was too much. This must be his opponent's father.

After a pause, the adult answered, "He's my precious comrade."

 _Comrade? A monster can have a comrade?_

Gaara watched his opponent being lifted on a stretcher before being carried away. Which reminded him...

 _Hinata._

But Gaara had noticed that the boy's father had called himself 'comrade' instead of 'father'. What on earth did he mean by the distinction? He decided to ask his siblings which they were to him. After receiving the less than satisfactory response of "We're both?" from his sister, the prelims were over. The hokage explained that they had a month until the finals, and they could use their time however they wished. Gaara had already planned on doing just that. He disappeared and, unbeknownst to his siblings, immediately went looking for the hospital. He wouldn't bump shoulders with them again for a few weeks.


	5. Chapter 5

A few days later.

Hinata's POV

Hinata opened her eyes to a drop tile ceiling. Everything hurt. Especially her heart. Literally. Her heartbeat was down to 30 some odd beats per minute, and each ba-thump hurt like hell. Judging from the I.V. drip attached to her arm, Hinata decided she was in the hospital.

"Hyuuga-san! You're awake!" A middle-aged nurse entered the room with a new I.V. bag. "I'll get the doc- oh, don't get up yet." Hinata stopped struggling to sit up. "Your family was by yesterday, and your friend just left. Nobody here but us chickens."

"Friend?"

A slight breeze brought a waft of perfume to her attention. Looking to her left, Hinata saw a relatively large and relatively red bouquet of roses on her side table.

 _Friend?_

Hinata wasn't sure if her heart had stopped or taken off faster than a hummingbird's. A machine began beeping rapidly.

"Hyuuga-san!?"

The nurse shouting was the last thing Hinata heard before she passed back out.

Ino's POV

Ino sat down to dinner with her parents.

"Thanks for helping out today, Ino-chan. I know you'd like to spend a day off with your friends, but I had to run those errands."

"It's okay, Mom. I had to pick up the slack for Dad, after all!"

"You had to pick up the slack for me? I'm the only on who made a sale today!"

"I wasn't coming out for that guy! He's scary!"

Her dad laughed. "Ah, yes. A young man can be a handful when he's in love."

"Lord knows you were."

"Did you think of me as a young then? Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday. I'm surprised your father didn't have me arrested for snatching away his cute, young daughter."

"I remember it like it was yesterday, too. You put so much thought into the bouquets you brought me, and your lines were just as cheesy."

At this point, her dad had set down his chopsticks and was holding her mother's hand. And staring dreamily into her eyes. Yuck.

"Can you guys not flirt at the dinner table? I'm going to loose my appetite."

"Speaking of bouquets with a lot of thought, I sold all the off-color red roses today. For full price, too."

"Darling!" Ino's mom had abandoned her own chopsticks and the two were staring deep into each other's eyes. "You're not only a great ninja and father, but a stelar business man, too!"

"AAAUUUGH!" Ino stormed off to her room, ignoring her mother's question about eating the rest of her dinner.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: I had a lot of fun writing this. And now, the events which led up to the previous chapter:

Gaara's POV

Gaara stood in front of the Yamanaka Flower shop. The smell was horrendous. He turned to leave.

'It's pretty standard to bring flowers if your friend is in the hospital.' The nurse's voice rang in his head.

Gaara turned back around and went into the heavily scented shop.

Inoichi's POV

Inoichi had observed his prospective client before he walked in the doors.

 _An indecisive customer. He's young, too._

"Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower shop, valued customer!" Inoichi greeted the boy with a huge grin and salesman mode on maximum. "Feel free to look around as you make your selection. Ask any staff member if you have any questions."

From the boy's blank expression, Inoichi wasn't entirely sure he heard him. Just before Inoichi repeated himself, the boy turned and began wandering around the shop.

The boy took a long while, examining each flower variety. This gave Inoichi time to analyze his customer. Aside from the fact that Inoichi had never seen him before, the Suna forhead protector tied to his gourd-harness gave away the fact that he was a foreigner at least. A gourd? Ah, that's right! Ino had talked about this kid, a weird ninjutsu with sand kept in a giant gourd. He'd been Lee's opponent, and beat Lee to a pulp.

After the boy had (very, very slowly) made his third lap around the shop, Inoichi asked "Would you like some assistance making your selection?"

He stared for a moment before nodded from behind the large pot of petunias he was currently inspecting.

"What sort of occasion are you buying flowers for?"

"A friend."

 _A friend is_ _ **not**_ _an occasion._

"Er, is there a specific reason you're buying your friend flowers?"

"Because we're friends."

 _Shoulda seen that one coming._

"I mean, is it your friend's birthday? Is it a gag gift? Is it a get well present? Is it an 'I was just thinking of you' gift?"

The boy had blinked halfway through Inoichi's question, but other than that, there was no reaction. Inoichi mentally kicked himself. Being the best psychic ninja usually comes in handy when making a sale, but Inoichi was starting to suspect that this kid might be keeping extra ninjutsu sand between his ears. In lieu of the boy's silence, Inoichi just kept on talking...

"If it were your friend's birthday, or some other special occasion, a larger bouquet would be more appropriate. But let's select a focal flower first. Why don't you find one that reminds you of your friend and we'll go from there?"

The boy put down the petunias and scanned the shop. Inoichi was prepared for three more laps of the store, but instead he walked right over to the white chrysanthemums and picked up the biggest one.

"Please don't send your friend that one. That would be ominous. Unless you're going for a gag gift."

"Why?"

"Er, white chrysanthemums are usually only for funerals. Your friend would probably think it's weird to get one while still alive."

"I see. What other flower giving customs are there in this country?"

 _'Customs'? Okay, maybe he doesn't have sand between his ears. I guess the shop just looks like an alien landscape to him. After all, there's not much besides cacti in the desert._

"Well, Hanakotoba is a long, complex subject. We have many books for sale on the subject if you're interested..." Inoichi was met with another blank stare. "Well, I supose I can give a quick lesson..."

And Inoichi began rattling off all kinds of different flowers and their meanings.

"Carnations for Mother's day; cherry blossoms remind us of our mortality, but we usually bring the person to the flowers in that case; those petunias you were looking at earlier would be for a new born child; for a birthday most flowers are fine, unless you pick one that already has a strong meaning, like white chrysanthemums or red roses, which of course are only special girls~~" Inoichi stuck up his pinky.

 _Speaking of red roses, this kid sort of looks like one... red hair all over the place and love tattooed on his forehead._

"... which is why it would help if you told me a little about your friend."

Of course silence followed. But given the boy's indecision at coming into the shop plus the level of detail he was examining while selecting the flowers, plus him being a kid, made Inoichi suspect they were for a girl and he was just too shy to say anything about it.

"Is your friend a boy or a girl?"

"Girl."

 _I'd forgotten he could talk._

"Ah, a girl~~" Inoichi feigned surprise. "Is she a normal friend who happens to be a girl, or is she special?"

The boy blinked. "She's special."

 _Why are you suddenly so forward? You wouldn't even talk before. And shouldn't you be embarrassed about saying something like that?_

"Well, if she's special, she should get special flowers. And for special girls, you should definitely get roses." Inoichi pulled a few buckets loaded with red roses out of the cooler. "Usually, the redder the better, but I have something else in mind."

Inoichi selected a few flowers from a bucket and held them up to the boy's head. "Nope, nope, nope, ah!" The process repeated until a bouquet the same shade as his hair had been built. "Perfect. You wouldn't even need a card. But we do have cards, please buy one."

~~

The long ordeal over and with the boy out of sight, Inoichi plopped down on a stool. Then he began laughing. After staring at the blank card for longer than the flower selection process, all he writes is 'Be well'.

"In the end, it was a 'get well' present!"


	7. Chapter 7

AN: *mentally insert that gif of Mushu from Mulan rising from the glowing smoke here* I LIVE!

...but seriously it's been a year and a half I have no excuse.

* * *

The next week.

Gaara's POV

As neither were terribly skilled at small talk, much of the time the two spent together was sitting in awkward silence. After witnessing one such bout of silence, the nurse had allowed Gaara to bring some of the game room's board games to Hinata's room on the condition that he put them back.

Due to his isolation, Gaara had zero experience in two player games, though he was able to pick up checkers pretty quick. Card games on the other hand, especially the one player kind, were Gaara's speciality. So was the building of card towers. He was pretty good at making them several stories high without using sand to hold them up, but Hinata's hands were less than steady, so he was cheating.

The taller the tower grew, the bigger Hinata's smile grew. After using up all 52 cards, they began balancing game pieces on and in the tower. Crowning the top of the stack with a pair of dice earned Gaara some giggling from Hinata.

"Well, it sounds like you're feeling better, Hinata-chan." A woman Gaara didn't know came in. He was relieved that it wasn't the nurse telling him it was time to leave.

"Sensei!" Hinata beamed at the newcomer.

Kurenai's POV

It took a second for it to register that the boy was neither Kiba nor Shino nor Naruto.

Kurenai glanced from the ridiculous card tower on Hinata's over-bed table to the now much larger from last week's flower collection on the bedstand. Kurenai had noticed the still present off-colored red rose bouquet and now-wilting daisies last time, though those and the new flowers had been consolidated into one, much larger vase. She noted not less than 4 small teddy bears crammed in the monstrous display as well.

Not sure what to make of the situation, Kurenai was grateful that Hinata kept talking.

"Gaara-kun, this is Kurenai-sensei. She's the jonin who's in charge of my training. I've learned a lot from her. She's taken better care of me than anyone!" Without missing a beat, Hinata's chipper introductions continued, "Sensei, you probably already know about Gaara-kun. We're friends. We met during the prelims. He's been visiting me every day in the hospital. He's really nice."

 _Every day?_

"It's nice to have someone else visit, too. For a change."

Hinata didn't have to say it, Kurenai knew full well her family hadn't been to the hospital once. Hence, Kurenai was tasked with bringing the girl a few changes of clothes. Hinata's mother had gathered the items for her, but stopped short of visiting her daughter herself. What a messed up family. On the other hand, it was a relief to know that Neji hadn't been any where near her since then.

"It's nice to see you're awake at last. I've brought you some clothes. How've you been feeling?"

As Hinata told her Sensei the mundane details of being hospitalized and eating from the government established nutritional guidelines that everybody knew couldn't be good for you, Kurenai found she couldn't fit the clothes bag on top of the bedstand.

"Oh, you can just leave it on the floor, Sensei. I'll get to it later."

"No, no. You rest. Let me do this much."

Kurenai opened the top drawer revealed it to be filled with sand.

 _What in the name of...?_

"Gaara-kun!" Hinata scolded the ninja that until this meeting had Kurenai convinced he was a blood thirsty killer. "I told you to leave it in the bottom drawer! Now there's gonna be sand on everything in my dresser."

"No. It'll stay together so long as I keep up the jutsu."

Hinata looked down, a bit crestfallen. Her voice was soft and a bit mumbled, "...even though I asked you not to...".

Gaara flinched as if she had slapped him. He opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came out. Instead, he turned around in his seat, away from Hinata, and hung his head in his hands in what Kurenai easily identified as 'rejection', though to say he was over reacting would be an understatement. As this melodrama played out, Kurenai watched, fascinated, as the sand collected itself, sent a tendril to open the bottom drawer and slithered into it's destination like an amoeba, but not before another tendril from the back end of the sand closed the top drawer it had come from and then managed to close the bottom drawer from the inside.

Gaara turned back toward Hinata, who hadn't noticed anything had changed and thus hadn't not moved. Unable to determine what he'd done wrong while trying to make her smile again, Gaara sank back to the position he was in when he began his existentialist crisis. It took more effort than Kurenai wanted to admit to stop herself from laughing.

"Why, thank you, Gaara-kun. That was very helpful." She said while placing Hinata's clothes in the top drawer of her dresser. Both kids were snapped back to reality, and Hinata echoed her sensei's statement.

"Thank you, Gaara-kun."

Her smile had returned.

A short while later, the nurse shooed Hinata's sensei and daily visitor away since visiting hours were over. Kurenai watched the boy practically float down the road, his high from Hinata saying "thank you" still going strong.

Kurenai sighed and shook her head. "Ninja shouldn't be so easy to manipulate."

"That wasn't something I expected to hear out of a jonin."

Kurenai turned around, the third hokage moseying his way over to the hospital.

"Here I am, on my way to see the state of the ninja who've risked life and limb for the reputation of our nation," The hokage's monologue continued despite Kurenai informing him that visiting hours were over, "and here I find our greenest jonin, talking to no one, going on about one of the most basic premises of being a ninja."

"Oh my, but you must've misheard. I said, 'Isn't young love wonderful?'. That doesn't seem like such an unusual statement to be coming out of a jonin or anybody else."

The third started laughing, and Kurenai walked away as she bid the hokage a good afternoon. The staff made an exception for the hokage, of course, to see the students. Lee and Hinata had been the only two admitted for an overnight stay who were still in the hospital. He listened to the bad news about Lee and the good news about Hinata. He also noticed the visitor sign in sheet by Hinata's room. It read:

Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Gaara  
Yuhi Kurenai

The hokage remembered a brief flash of red hair in the distance before he encountered Kureani.

 _Young love, huh?_

The next day, the Kazekage received a letter from the Hokage. It was nothing but drivel about the chunin exams and the candidates and how wonderful it was to be having this exam and a lot of nonsense about coming together, but the tone was dripping with a sentiment of 'I know something you don't know'.

The Kazekage wasn't quite sure if this meant the plan was found out or not.

* * *

AN: So I forgot that her family had "visited earlier" on the first day she woke up, but let's just pretend that the high and mighty Hyuuga clan doesn't bother signing themselves in on a hospital visitation sheet. Let's also pretend that the only reason Kurenai signed her name was because she had been witnesses by the nurse picking up the clipboard and reading it and not before she went in the room. Ugggh I'm also not happy with the how many times Gaara has signed the form for each day he's visited because it's not super important what day this is other than more than 7 like uuuugggghhhh this chapter. All my problems would be over if I would rewrite this and just have the hokage talk to the nurse but let's be real here and remember how long I took to get this chapter out.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: I have a confession to make. Chapter 7 was done a while ago, and Chapters 8 and 9 i'm still not happy with but like the ice queen says: let it go. The story's not going to be perfect, ever. And thanks goes out to the reviewers who are the kindest of kicks in the butt to keep me writing this. But I'm pleased with Chapter 10, it was all half finished and gnawing at me for a long ass time but then light bulb and that's why today is another upload-a-paloosa.

* * *

After making several stops to the Yamanaka flower shop, Gaara became aware of an annoying problem he'd never been forced to face before: an empty wallet.

As a child, he really had no need for money, and anything that came up in town was either met with a closed door or a free item in exchange for leaving faster. But this wasn't his father's village, where anything he wanted (except love) was given to him.

For the duration of the exam, Gaara and his siblings had each been given a small purse to cover their food expenses for when they didn't want to eat at the hotel. Since Gaara didn't sleep, he was given more food money since it was less likely that he'd be at the hotel, but flowers were expensive. More so than a meal. He had shied away from a rose bouquet after his first purchase, but the addition of ribbons, accent flowers, the occasional teddy bear which reminded Gaara of the one he had when he was a kid, made every purchase more than he expected.

Gaara was unaware of the extent to which the Yamanaka Flower Shop was extorting him. The prospect of simply not buying flowers for Hinata, or else bringing her some other sort of gift had not yet crossed his mind, and as a result Gaara was determined to obtain more money.

For the first time in his life, Gaara asked his older sister for help.

For the first time in her life, Temari had to explain to her superior officer that she no longer had any funds.

"What on earth happened, Temari? Did you get mugged?" the girl's younger and annoying brother asked.

"I did."

"Who the heck can mug a ninja?" Kankuro asked no one before turning his attention back to his sister, "And you! What kind of ninja gets mugged?"

"Gaara..."

"Huh? What about Gaara?" Kankuro had forgotten that he had a murderous younger brother for the last couple of days. He was less than thankful for the sobering reminder.

"Gaara mugged me." Temari's words were hollow.

Baki watched the ridiculous scene in silence, leaning in the doorway. Between Kankuro and Temari's bickering, the two decided that Gaara needed to be followed in order to see what on earth he needed money for. Baki had intel to send back to HQ, so something to keep Kankuro's big mouth shut was honestly a welcome opportunity, though he was more than a little worried about Gaara. Still, he would rather send his report as is than add something about Gaara acting weird in if this turned out to be nothing. Reluctantly, Baki assigned the two to watch over their brother and report back that evening with what they find.

~~ Meanwhile, the lovebirds move location ~~

The week had come to a close, and the doctors had decided that Hinata was well enough to leave the hospital. Kurenai had come to fill out the paperwork that even Gaara knew a family member should have done and Hinata packed up the few belongings of hers that she had.

As he had been the one to buy them for her, Gaara was tasked with moving the mound of flowers back to Hinata's house. He also insisted on carrying the rest of her belongings. As the two approached the main house, the frequency of strangers in the street who knew Hinata and stopped them to talk to her increased. So did the frequency of him being introduced to random people.

They finally arrived, and the inside of the Hyuuga main house was seemingly just as empty as Gaara's. No one was around to say anything to the two of them as they made their way to a bedroom that smelled like Hinata. The mass of wilting flowers was moved onto her desk by the window.

Hinata tried to fetch tea for the two of them, but Gaara wouldn't leave Hinata alone for a second. The two of them ended up in the dining room, with tea and a snack. The two of them ended up being witnesses having tea and a snack by the Hyuuga clan heiress.

Hinata managed to persuade Gaara to leave after a while (Somehow, Hinata managed to convince him with the concept of hospital visiting hours and a promise to see him tomorrow), and that evening at dinner Hanabi reveals what she's seen.

"Letting Nee-chan take the chunin exam was a bad idea. Not only did she get beat up real bad, but she also has a boyfriend now."

Hiashi choked on his food. "Boyfriend?!"

"My little girl is growing up so fast..." The girls' mother held her face in her hand and sighed softly.

"That's too fast!" Hiashi slammed his fists on the table. "Hinata! You are not allowed to have a boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Hinata argued while blushing furiously.

"He is tooo~~" her sister taunted. "I can tell. You're blushing."

"Hanabi! I am not!" Hinata protested, despite her face's color rivaling Gaara's hair.

"Hinata!" Hiashi bellowed. "You are forbidden from meeting with this boy."

"Dear, please don't raise your voice like that. She did just get out of the hospital."

"We're just _friends_!" Hinata's insistence fell of deaf ears.

Chaos continued until the girl's mother put her foot down in a way they'd never seen before in their short lives. From the shocked look on the clan leader's face, it wasn't something he'd ever seen in his life either. The typically calm Hyuuga woman explained to her husband that growing up was different between boys and girls, and having a crush at a younger age was one of those things. She reprimanded Hanabi for teasing her older sister, and ushered the girls with their half finished dinners out to the porch for some "girl talk".

Hiashi hadn't felt so out of control since his brother died.


	9. Chapter 9

That evening, Temari and Kankuro relayed what had happened after they'ed tracked down Gaara. He had gone into the Yamanaka Flower Shop, and emerged with a single sunflower. They waited a minute to follow him, and a moment before they emerged from their hiding spot, a girl with blonde hair exited the shop. She followed him, and the two followed her. (Temari left out how they'd almost been given away by Kankuro lamenting about a line of stalkers while ostentatiously peering behind them to see who was following them.)

They followed the blonde girl, whom Kankuro recalled was one of the participating konoha ninja who'd lost her prelim match, all the way to the hospital. The flower shop girl paused for a minute outside the hospital entrance, pacing back and forth wildly in her indecision. She finally nodded firmly to no one, and charged into the building, the sand siblings hot on her heels though well hidden. Temari and Kankuro were surprised to find the girl who was tailing their brother heel turn and crash into them, though the three were able to dart out of view just as Gaara and his companion had just rounded the corridor's corner.

Gaara, being fairly preoccupied with a mountain of flowers in his face and Hinata walking beside him, had failed to notice his pursuers. The three followed their targets to what Temari learned was the Hyuuga family household, and disappeared inside. Due to the heavily guarded nature of the place and the comings and goings of individuals that she could identify as powerful ninja, the three set up a perimeter and waited for Gaara to emerge. Which he eventually did from the same gate he had entered from, promised to meet with the girl the next day, and proceeded to plop himself down on the closest public bench to the gate, which is where he remains as far as his siblings know as they were no longer observing him.

Temari left out their conversation with Ino until she could confirm the flower girl's wild claims.

~~The next day~~

Now that Ino was aware of who the shop's faithful customer was buying flowers for, her fear of him had evaporated completely. Secretly, Ino had wondered if he was merely buying them for the novelty of fresh flowers or perhaps to make rosewater, which she had found was an expensive yet high demand commodity used in the Sand country's sweets. But he was actually buying them for a girl and that girl was Hinata at that. Ino had never been close with Hinata, but that was more a byproduct of their opposite personalities rather than any sort of animosity between the two. That and the Hyuuga clan's signature up-tight bougie people thing.

Not that Hinata was like that, conversely she had been infamous at the academy for being shy, and in all their years of schooling, Ino had never seen such a bright expression on her face as she'd witnesses yesterday. Nor had she heard Hinata talking so loudly. The Sand boy's brother and sister had divulged a bit about him in exchange for a bit about Hinata, though Ino didn't actually know much about her as a person. Ino learned that Gaara was ruthless as a ninja and that, until this point, had never cared about anyone but himself. Ino, the ever expert at reading a customer's emotions in conjunction with being a ninja, was able to see that the siblings were fearful when they discussed their younger sibling as a ninja and oddly callus when they mentioned his coldness as a person, despite their attempts to conceal as much as possible.

Ino explained that she didn't know much about Hinata as a ninja, but this was due to the Hyuuga clan's secrecy as, after all, they were the most powerful ninja clan in the country. As a person, Ino left out Hinata's pathological timidness and instead mentioned the change in her behavior around the same time as the other two had noticed a change in Gaara. Somewhat forgetting that she was only divulging information in to gain knowledge of her customer (and perhaps find something to increase the price of his purchases), Ino transformed into a regular 12 year old girl who is super interested in who likes who.

"It's so obvious that they're in love!" Ino squealed, louder than she intended.

His siblings seemed dumbfounded, then angry at her suggestion, but it was so obvious! Ino went on to explain in detail why the two were such a good match, though Temari was suspecting that she was just making things up considering she didn't know Gaara and had admitted she didn't know Hinata enough to evaluate either them.

"My brother isn't capable of contracting puppy love, he's a blood thirsty killer! I mean, since she's around him so much, she's the one the most in danger." Temari scoffed.

"A blood thirsty killer who's discovered a new side to himself." Ino corrected. "Maybe Hinata will discover her own blood thirst side, ha ha ha!"

"I'm being serious!" Temari roared. Her sane(?) younger brother decided that this was enough nonsense for one day and dragged her away from the giggling Konoha Kunoichi. He had dragged her back to their commander, and after giving her report Temari made the split second decision that mission be damned, there was no way she was going to admit much less allow her little brother to be in love with some Konoha girl.

"He's simply making frivolous purchases. He's probably intrigued by the differences between here and back home."

A statement which, as far as Temari was concerned, was true.


	10. Chapter 10

Inoichi stepped out of the shop and left Ino to deal with the not quite red rose bouquet customer whom she was no longer afraid of for some unknown reason. Well, the amount of money the boy was procuring was starting to get ridiculous and while wondering if he was rich or else a pick pocket Inoichi had flexed his ninja skills and figured out that the boy was the Kazekage's son. Not wanting an international incident cropping up, he decided if he let kids be kids the whole thing could be swept under the rug if need be. Well, that and he wanted Ino to grow as a saleswoman. He wasn't sure if she was goofing off by idly chatting with her best friend as she was trying to make another sale to the boy or if she had some trick up her sleeve. The idle banter drifted to the back of the shop where he rested.

"Okay, billboard brow, pop-quiz. What do Azaleas mean?"

"Standard answer: modesty or patience. My answer: be patient or modest, or else!"

"Pfft! Ha-ha-ha!" Ino cracked up as Sakura casually added "Azaleas are poisonous" to Gaara's arsenal of flower knowledge.

"How can the same flower have different meanings?" Gaara asked sincerely from behind a small pot of periwinkle. Ino gave Gaara the same "bad luck" reason her father did for why he shouldn't get her a potted plant if she's in the hospital, but Gaara informed the two that she had been discharged. Sakura gave Ino a puzzled look, and Ino let her friend in on the juicy not-so-secret that "He's wooing Hinata."

"I'm not trying to procure a signature for a treaty." Gaara's rebuttal illustrated that he had as little idea of love terminology as he did flower language. "We're friends."

The girls stared at him in silence for a good 15 seconds.

"Valued Customer! You can't be buying flowers for a girl who's just a friend every day like that! She'll misunderstand!" Ino belted out a rebuke with more force than Gaara had ever received in his life. He was, however, unfazed.

"I have taken the utmost care as to not purchase flowers with negative flower language meanings." he replied, cool as a cucumber. "Unless there was some meaning I was unaware of." His eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the cashier.

"That's not what Ino means! You shouldn't just be getting 'good' flowers all willy-nilly! The flowers are representing your feelings. You should be using the flowers to tell her how you _feel_ about her!" Sakura had joined Ino on the GaaHina shipping bandwagon.

For what must have been the twentieth time, Gaara answered that they were friends when asked what Hinata was to him. He further inquired of the cashier if he had made some mistake and possible purchased a flower with a meaning contrary to "friendship".

Sakura answered the question that wasn't directed at her. "Oh for goodness sake, just because a flower means this or that doesn't mean it's the same for everyone you'd give it to. Just like words, flowers can convey more than a textbook meaning." Sakura mused.

Gaara lowered the pot in his hands with a look of slight horror.

"It depends on the relationship between the giver and receiver. But yeah, it's totally possible to be passive aggressive with flowers. Here, Sakura, for you." She held out an orange lily. "It's a little messed up, but it's free."

 _Go die, Sakura. You're ruining everything._

"How kind!" Sakura's smile twitched. "I'll buy some Freesias, but don't bother wrapping them. They're for you."

 _Lighten up Ino, you're throwing a tantrum._

"Billboard brow."

"Ino-pig."

"Why is an unclassified code so complicated?" Gaara furled his brow at the buckets of dyed carnations.

"Flowers represent feelings. Feelings are complicated."

For the twenty first time, Gaara reiterated that he and Hinata are friends. Sakura tried to steer the conversation so Gaara could understand that friendship can change to love with people's feelings changing bit by bit each day and trying tie the idea that relationships change as people change and people change everyday, but Gaara unwittingly derailed her by thoughtfully commenting that her analysis is very "meta". Ino shook her head at the silliness and didn't say anything. Gaara stared at an iris for a minute before informing the girls that Sakura was right, he had changed since coming to Konoha. The girls widened their eyes at each other and silently cheered, but Gaara also dropped the bombshell that he noticed Hinata had changed as well, which nearly knocked his meddling cupids out of their chairs. Instead of seeing what was plain for the girls to see that the two of them were becoming better people by falling in love with each other, Gaara instead calmly commented how impressed he was with the concept of "friendship", since two people could change so much so quickly and their friendship can endure them becoming new people. He then dropped an another bombshell as he mused on the unpredictable nature of his future with Hinata.

Gaara selected the periwinkle he had been holding earlier, paid, and bowed politely as he left the shop and the two girl who had suddenly started making oddly strained facial expressions. He was halfway to the Hyuuga estate when he heard the two scream-shouting something about if they had "heard that". Gaara tensed for a second, but the only disturbance in the area he could find were the voices of the two carrying quite clearly from six streets away. He wondered about the sanity of the two briefly before he continued on his way and soon forgot about everything except for Hinata.


	11. Chapter 11

Gaara soon became aware that he was not the only person concerned with Hinata's well being. He learned that her jonin teacher had been scampering around with missions and sleeping (like normal people do), but visiting with reasonable frequency now that Hinata was back in her family home. As were her team mates. Gaara wasn't particularly enthralled with the boy who kept a dog on his head for all the noise he made, but the fellow with the sunglasses was passive enough to not be a bother. The greatest asset the two boys came with was an easier excuse for Hinata to leave her house.

Of course, the other two were still active shinobi, one of which Gaara might face off against in the finals, so free time was mainly contained to buying ice cream, drinks, or shaved ice on the way to the training grounds and watching the two spar until Gaara was conned into training as well. Well, after a few days Gaara was observing Shino's techniques so much, he supposed it was only fair.

During one escapade to the training grounds, the flower shop girl (loudly) called out to her favorite customer and "the lucky lady". During Gaara's mildly panicked attempt to get Hinata to calm down, the flower girl and her pink doppleganger showed up, dragging two more Konoha shinobi with them. One was the boy who had beaten the dog-hat in the prelims and was just as loud while the other was the Uchiha boy whom shared Gaara's desire to spar with him. The happy, quiet pair who had recently upgraded(?) to a quiet with one loudmouth quartet was now a gaggle of eight. The mini genin parade was easily spotted by Gaara's siblings, who tagged along because _what in the name of everything windy was he DOING?_ Closing in on the ice cream shop, the group saw a very happy sales person at the approaching customers and the remainder of the rookie nine. Choji was happily savoring a large cone of bacon ice cream while Shikamaru was lamenting the appearance of the mob that was threatening to make his afternoon troublesome.

And so, the rookie nine plus team Sand made their way to the training grounds. They met three more Konoha shinobi, Team Guy minus Lee, already going crazy on the training field. Pairing off to spar soon became impossible with the number of participants, and confusing from half the group wanting to train and the other half either lazing about or else eagerly chatting with Hinata. Tenten, who obviously had some sort of system down already from dealing with Guy without Lee for her and Neji, created a messy rotations schedule for who was happily lounging around and making sure stray shuriken didn't hit Hinata and who was enduring Guy being so thrilled at all of the youthfulness.

Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, and Kankuro were team "not moving"' Guy, Neji, Naruto, and Kiba were on team "stay the heck away or so help me god"; Ino, Sakura, Tenten, and Temari were on team "girls inquiring what the heck was going on"; leaving Gaara, Sasuke, and Shino on team "serious". Team "serious" rotated through with team "girls inquiring what the heck was going on" to check on Hinata, though Sasuke was only included because Sakura and Ino wanted to spend time with him. The insanity endured through till evening, with Choji's stomach signaling dinner time. At the end of the hours long training, Gaara was displeased with the flower shop girl and her minion deciding that all of the kunoichi, including his sister, were going to have a "slumber party" at the Hyuuga residence. Gaara was given a very illogical explanation as to why the spontaneous event was "girls only" but Hinata had cheerfully told Gaara that she would see him tomorrow and his nod was interpreted by the shipping duo as consenting to their temporary separation and Hinata was whisked away.

Unsure what to do, Gaara's thoughts drifted back to the hospital nurse whom had provided Gaara with advice. Kiba had absentmindedly suggested going to the hospital after all that training, which Gaara agreed that his sugestion was a good idea. Several skeptical eyebrows were raised in his direction as the spotless nature of his clothing and lack of scratches was noted. Kankuro asked Gaara if he was okay, which Gaara mused about visiting when Hinata was in the hospital, but stopped because he was less than eager to explain to other boys that he wanted to be closer to Hinata. He wondered to himself why he felt that the girls were an annoyance while other boys were a threat, but Gai stepped up and youthfully distracted everyone by crying manly tears and thanking Gaara for thinking of his cute student still in the hospital. The jonin then herded the boys to the hospital to visit Lee.


	12. Chapter 12

Climbing the stairs to Lee's room, Neji's head was swimming from the strange turn of events that afternoon had brought. First off, the Suna team was hanging out with the rookies all buddy-buddy like. Second, the ninja who had crippled Lee was noticeably spending every spare second he had, in or out of battle, focused on his cousin. Third, there was currently a slumber party of pre and teenaged girls at the Hyuuga residence.

He dreaded the idea of going home.

The fourth strange event was the evening shift nurses acting as if they were about to deliver kittens at the sight of a rambunctious Maito Gai and a gaggle of children, but one of them identified a particular red head in the crowd and after the two exchanged pleasantries the ninja mob was escorted to Lee's room. Much to the chagrin of the rest of the staff.

Lee was in a noticeably bad mood when the group arrived, though a heavy dose of youthfulness from his sensei, Naruto, and Kiba seemed to perk him up. One medley of thought seemed to ooze out of Choji, Naruto, and Kiba, which resulted in the decision to throw Lee a party once he was well. The subject of Lee's decrepitude had been skirted around as much as possible, but tales of their stupid training ridiculousness of course was about the training that Lee was too injured to participate in. A free-for-all training session was just Lee's style, too.

The meddlesome nurse was supervising the visit, since there were so many rambunctious kids, and wondered aloud about boys and "beating up their friends". Naruto disrupted her train of thought because they weren't fighting, they were training because they were ninja after all, which earned him some good natured chuckling from the nurse. Gai drew the nurse out of the room for a moment to ask about the less cheerful aspects of Lee's recovery and in the absence of an adult, Neji decided he was in charge of the room. Demanding to know why the sand nin was anywhere near Lee, Gaara answered almost agitated that they were friends now (if the nurse could be trusted, and she could since she was directly responsible for allowing Gaara to meet with Hinata so often while she was hospitalized), and given the extended beatdown Lee had sustained would theoretically make the invalid ninja his best friend (a title the flower girl and pinkie had wised him up to). Musing silently to himself, Gaara was unhappy that Hinata was not his best friend and wondered about why everything was so complicated when it came to Hinata.

The room was silenced completely for a good ten seconds before Shikamaru, wisest of the genin, informed Gaara that he should probably apologize for putting Lee in a hospital bed regardless.

"I used as much force as I believed necessary, though clearly I over estimated your abilities." was Gaara's response to Shikamaru's request. The sand nin filled the second short silence that followed with a bit about how such force was necessary to keep up with Lee and how close he was to loosing the match.

Neji stared, in disbelief of the foreign boy who insulted and flattered his teammate in one breath.

The suspicious silence that was more worrisome than silence from a toddler had goaded Gai back into the room who was followed by the nurse carrying a tray of hospital food which followed the government established nutritional guidelines that everyone knew couldn't be good for you. Neji suggested the group leave Lee to eat in peace, but the nurse countered that Lee shouldn't feel like he was being rude for eating in front of everyone, because he was in the hospital after all. She welcomed the group to stay as long as Lee was comfortable with, assuming it was still her shift. The talk of food, however, made one pudgy Konoha genin and one pudgy Suna genin egg their teammates on to leave (Kankuro more so finding an opportunity to leave so he could get Gaara out of there before something even more ridiculous happened. He sneezed in unison with the lazy Konoha genin, whom the audience can infer was having the same thought.)

Lee insisted they must be tired from all that training and thanked the group for giving him something to look forward to upon his release. He invited them to come back tomorrow. Everyone smiled and nodded politely as bid Lee a good evening and filed out, except for Gaara, who specified that he had a previous engagement tomorrow, and perhaps he would stop by the next day.

Not quite hearing Gaara correctly, Naruto asked him who he was engaged to and Gaara, not quite understanding the latest love related terminology to grace his ears assumed it meant person he had an appointment with, replied with only her name. Neji fell out of his chair.

* * *

AN: okay, Neji isn't completely canon loyal, but A) it's funny and B) it's a lil hard to get years of repentant Neji after being told the truth about his father and because the main branch prolly wanted to marry off Hinata to Neji to get her out of the main branch so Hanabi could be the heir no questions asked out of my head. and C) angry Neji wasn't as interesting of a character to work with.


	13. Chapter 13

AN: ngl, this fic is going in all sorts of weird tangents compared to how I had originally drafted it.

* * *

At the slumber party, which Hiashi was reluctant to agree to but not willing to risk the wrath of the angry momma bear of his wife, the girls did very normal slumber party things. They were generally loud, ate too many snacks, stayed up late, and played weird sleepover games that no one to this day knows the origins of. They also, of course, talked about boys. Ino and Sakura decided to prime the pump with how much both of the liked Sasuke, which Tenten and Temari also agreed that he was handsome, but Tenten then ushered the conversation in exactly the right direction by mentioning that it's more important how a boy treats you rather than what he looks like. Ino had easy pickings with Hinata at that point, but the blush creeping on Tenten's face was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Ino happily clapped Hinata on the back and congratulated her on her new in-laws, which both Temari and Tenten interpreted as themselves. Temari snapped back with how ridiculous of a statement that was because her brother is 12, and at the same time Tenten said she didn't like Neji like that. The Tenten revelation led to an information gathering bonanza, with Ino and Sakura carefully watching Tenten's expression when the discussed every boy they knew. Hinata, taking a page out of the book of Gaara, directly asked Tenten who she liked, who insisted she didn't like anyone. Tenten said that Neji and her were comrades in arms with dealing with Lee and Gai craziness but he always treated her skills as if everything she did was already expected of her and she couldn't date someone who thought of her like that.

Trying to move out of the soured mood, Sakura asked Temari if she liked any of the Konoha boys, aside from Sasuke of course. A curt explanation of them all being too troublesome made Ino keel over, bemoaning how much that sounded like Shikamaru and his lack of motivation. Temari asked to be reminded which one was Shikamaru. When Ino described him as "the quiet one who manages to be infuriating", Temari asked if he was the one with the sunglasses who had complimented Tenten on her rotations schedule. Sakura gasped loudly at the flush that crept over Tenten's cheeks, and Ino bolted up, spied the evidence, and firmly established that "Tenten likes Shino!" as well as added that Shikamaru was the pineapple head who was staring at clouds with her teammate.

When asked about her team, Temari didn't extrapolate beyond "they're my brothers", but the Gaara reminder was all Ino needed to be off to the races. After much prodding from Ino and much blushing from Hinata, the group learned that Gaara had visited her every day in the hospital, bought her lots and lots of flowers, and visited her every day after she was discharged. Sakura squealed about the flowers and how Gaara was "so romantic" and how lucky Hinata was, while Tenten mentioned something about him being the "strong and silent" type from what she'd seen on the training grounds. Ino agreed with the assessment, and asked Hinata what the two of them talked about on their dates, to which Hinata protested they'd never been on a date.

Temari sat, jaw agape, as three Konoha kunoichi unanimously decided that her crazy, murderous little brother was some sort of ideal lead for a romantic movie and decided that he was going on a date with a fourth and very flustered Konoha kunoichi.


	14. Chapter 14

The finals were only a few days away, but the Sand Nin all had something else on their minds. Gaara, upon reuniting with Hinata the next morning, was asked if he would accompany her on a picnic (the final decision for their date after amusement park, beach, arcade, shopping, and a one-on-one training session were ruled out). Of course, the picnic was planned for lunch, but as it was shortly after breakfast when Hinata asked him out and neither had anything else planned that morning, Gaara somehow wormed his way into going with her to get the ingredients for lunch as well as help her make it. Hinata snagged her money pouch, saw her guests out, and left for the market with Gaara in one fell swoop.

Tenten thought this quite defeated the purpose of a picnic date, but Ino argued that the more time they spent together, the more opportunities there would be to spy on them. Er, for them to bond, yes, that was totally what she meant. The girls spent the morning watching Gaara and Hinata go into various shops before heading back toward the main residence. They split into a much louder than they thought they were being Konoha group who were going to come up with a "plan" which the lone Suna Nin had no idea what was about or why a plan was needed and instead scampered off to find her other brother. Upon their reunion, Kankuro informed Temari that Gaara had announced to the rest of the boys that he was engaged to the feeble girl and Temari told Kankuro that the two were going on a date which somehow started 3 hours prematurely.

Unable to fully process what the other had said, the two stared at each other in silence for a solid 2 minutes.

~~ 3 days earlier~~

The Kazekage, noting a significant lack of details in Baki's last report about his youngest and volatile son, couldn't squash that nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had flopped the report down on his desk on top of another troublesome report that was dwelling on him. Rasa mused on Baki's selective silence as well as the oddly upbeat and cheerful letter he had received from the Hokage a week ago.

The point of the invasion was to destroy Konoha's military strength, and simultaneously a giant advertisement of Suna's strength. If the plan had been found out, then failure was not only more likely, but assuming the attack was carried out and failed before the eyes of all the world, it would be the end of Suna. For the Land of Hot Water to abandon training ninja and turn into a tourist trap was one thing, but Suna was one of the big five. Failure is just not an option. Unable to handle the stress any longer, Rasa alerted his personal guard, packed a light bag, and took off for Konohagakure 3 days ahead of schedule. He would evaluate the state of the mess with his own eyes.

He left 20 minutes before Baki's next daily report, the one mentioning "Gaara simply making frivolous purchases", arrived by carrier eagle.

~~ Present day, Konoha~~

The Third Hokage feigned surprise with the Kazekage's "pre-punctuality" to the finals. Rasa was worried with the old geezer's current chuckling. If he had been trying to, in his ominous letter, to intimidate him because the plan had been found out then he would have no reason to keep up the act. Instead, he was still being weird and flowery with his language and going on about bringing the nations closer together. An aid had scampered away from the Hokage from what must have been a hand signal only to have a stern man who was dressed overly traditionally take his place. The grinning geezer introduced him as Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan. The three enjoyed a casual stroll around the village as they discussed politics in as broad strokes as possible with the sensitive information and all. Absolutely nothing seemed out of the ordinary until, upon rounding the corner, Rasa found his oldest two engaged in a staring contest.

Clearing his throat, his daughter quickly snapped back to reality and addressed him as "father". Brief introduction were made between the siblings, the Hokage, and Hiashi, though Temari, a bit too quickly and not so wisely, said she had already met the Hyuuga clan leader. The Kazekage silently congratulated his daughter on exceptional politicking, but just then two wounded howls erupted from behind a nearby tree. The source of one wail was a small, white puppy and the other was the human whom was acting as a mount for the small dog. The human, however, was less so howling and more so complaining that "it was true!". A second human, dressed in a coat that was entirely too warm for the middle of summer and hiding behind a pair of Harry Potter-esque sunglasses, scurried up to the adults, bowed politely to the Hokage, and asked if such an old fashioned arrangement was appropriate, given that Gaara and Hinata are both 12.

The Hokage broke the tension in the air by erupting in laughter, and said there was no "arrangement" for if there were he would have been informed. If anything had been arranged, is was between the parties in question and completely unofficial. Hiashi gripped the bridge of his nose and gave a stern sigh, as if that was what he'd been afraid of all along. Shino thanked the Hokage for clarification and apologized for insinuating that he had arranged an international marriage between children.

"Is there something..." Rasa took a breath to stay calm. "... that someone has not been telling me?"

The Kazekage took the news from his elder son fairly well, despite the blunt force he spoke with when he informed his father that "Gaara has a girlfriend". Rasa guessed correctly that since this strange other man had been invited out for his stroll with the Hokage he was the father of the "girlfriend" in question. He had originally thought either the worst, that since the plan had been seen through that a Hyuuga was being used as some sort of stupid eye-that-can-see-through-everything-and-everyone analogy for Konoha seeing through the plan. It was unintentionally a correct analogy for every single person present except him aware that his crazy youngest child had a girlfriend.

Rasa mimicked Hiashi (though he gripping his temple instead of the bridge of his nose) as he groaned, wondering what sort of trouble the boy could have possibly gotten into with the girl that caused the Hokage to call her father the instant he entered the old man's office.

"I always thought I'd be chasing boys off of Temari before I had to deal with either of the other two."

The tension that the Hokage didn't know was in his shoulders evaporated. Rasa's blunt honesty diffused the situation completely. Instead of two Kages and the head of the most powerful clan in the village, the three comfortably slipped into simply being fathers chatting about raising daughters and the trouble that arose in their teenage years. For all Rasa's efforts with Gaara, he only thought of his youngest as either a weapon or a liability. This wasn't the sort of liability he ever thought a demon container could be. The sudden appearance of such a problem sort of felt like he had suddenly discovered an illegitimate child of his, a whole complex life chalk full of trouble that was about to destroy his reputation suddenly dropped in his lap for him to deal with. The cheerful banter between the three powerful men eased off and Rasa waited for the Hokage to finish chucking about his own youth (stories no one wanted to hear about) before asking where precisely his precocious child was. He was less than thrilled with his daughter's answer of "on a picnic date ...that he cooked". When the older two could not provide the location, the Kazekage uttered a phrase he had never said before in his life, "Temari, Kankuro. Go find your brother." They scampered off, the girl's teammates trailing after them.

* * *

AN: I had thought chapter 6 was pretty awesome, but this is definitely my favorite chapter so far. Also, this updating every week thing has been fun and all, but I'm getting really distracted with life and stuff so if there's no chapter 15 next thursday, I'm sorry.


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